Burleigh Votes to Start Work on 9-1-1 Texting System
LEANN ECKROTH, Bismarck Tribune
The Burleigh County Commission has voted to set up the groundwork for an emergency 911 texting system.
If all goes on schedule, cellphone users in Burleigh County could post emergencies through this method sometime in 2014. The technology even allows videos and data from vehicle computers to be sent directly to dispatchers.
Mike Dannenfelzer, communications manager for the Bismarck/Burleigh Combined Communications Center, said Monday that commissioners amended their agreement with the North Dakota Association of Counties to help set up a statewide Next Generation 911 system.
The county will pay the NDACo 15 percent of the landline and cell phone taxes collected on monthly phone bills. The decision changes the scope of the county’s contract to also organize a 911 texting system. The county will be paying $27,000 more per year to the association to set up the foundation for the system to help implement it statewide.The county previously paid $144,000 per year to the group.
Dannenfelzer said the county association has hired Jason Horning as its program director for the statewide project.
“Texting (911) has come up during the Virginia Tech shootings. Texting would be an advantage during a home break-in when the victim would not want to be seen or heard,” he said. He said it could also help in an abduction.
Dannenfelzer said “it’s reasonable” that texting 911 messages could start in Burleigh County in two years and the upgrades bid out by mid-2013. Hardware and software improvement costs could range near $300,000, he said. Funding would come from the phone taxes that users already pay.
Dannenfelzer said coordinating the 911 system through the NDACo is more cost-efficient than each statewide entity setting up their own and it is more favorable for regional networks of this type.
He doesn’t expect a texting 911 system to cost users any more on their monthly phone bills, but said that might be decided after the improvements are bid out.
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